Increased Prayer for Increased Thanksgiving
As the calendar resets and we launch into 2026, my hope for our church is that we would become more thankful as a result of becoming more prayerful. May God give us more joy, as we become more thankful, as a result of becoming more prayerful.
To be thankful is to be thankful for something. To be thankful is to have a concrete idea of what, or who, you are thankful for. There is something you have been given that was undeserved, and by thinking about it or remembering it, you have the opportunity to be thankful.
Thankfulness isn’t automatic, but is the manner in which we ought to receive gifts from God. Paul, in 1 Timothy 4, twice says that what God has created and given is to be “received with thanksgiving.” There is a way in which the gift becomes beneficial to us, as we receive it with thanksgiving.
So I want us to be ready to receive with thanksgiving all that God desires to give us. But more than that, I hope that this would increase our prayer. That prayer would be the catalyst to increase our thanksgiving to God, which simply would look like this:
We ask God for things in prayer, (for strength, for hope, for help, for the salvation of friends or family). Then we watch expectantly for him to answer. And when he does, we readily receive what he gives with thanksgiving.
May God, in the year 2026, make the people of Cities Church more thankful as a result of us becoming more prayerful. Would you pray with me to this end?
Prayer of Confession
Father, your word tells us that every good gift comes from you. Yet so often, we fail to recognize you as the giver of everything we have. You give us life, you give us our very breath, and even if we readily confess this, we still often fall short of giving you thanks for it. So we thank you now God for all that you give us, even the many things you give that we don’t think to ask for. Father help us now to confess our ingratitude, and to give you the thanks and glory you rightly deserve, in this moment of silent confession…
